General Store by Michael Matherly – FX Schmid – 300 pieces
I found this at mom’s house while going through her things. I liked the artwork very much, and at 300 pieces knew it wouldn’t take long to assemble. How bummed was I when I figured out there were missing pieces? Not terribly, but still it was disappointing.
FX Schmid has excellent quality; thick pieces, nice fit, and gorgeous image reproduction. We only find this brand at the thrift stores, so I’m not sure if they’re even still being produced. This particular puzzle seemed quite old, though the box was still in pretty good shape.
I enjoyed this assembly very much, but I was a little upset that the adorable dog on the front porch was missing! 😥
Beaches of South Walton – Blue Crab Designs – 1000 pieces
Interesting puzzle from a company I’ve never heard of before. I couldn’t find anything online about them either; they may not be in business still, I’m not sure.
Unfortunately it had a terribly mushy fit, but otherwise I found the quality of the pieces quite good. They were thick and had a good hand feel. The image seemed a little blurry, but I believe that was the nature of the artwork.
Apparently Bow Wow Meow is a pet supply store in South Walton; I just loved the name, very cute. 😉
The map portion of this puzzle was one of the most fun sections to assemble, although surprisingly I found the green section quite entertaining as well.
Overall the mushy fit was disappointing and did not make for a great first impression. I had high hopes for this puzzle because the chipboard used was very good, but the fit of the pieces made for a sometimes frustrating assembly.
Prairie Wind Flowers by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 300 pieces
I was pleasantly surprised by this puzzle, it was a thrift store buy from mom’s house, and the box indicated that there was a missing piece. Normally that annoys me, but I decided to assemble it anyway – and there were no missing pieces. Awesome!
It went together very quickly, and the wonderfully thick pieces were a joy. The fit was exceptional and all in all it was a lovely puzzle. I’m not sure how much I would have enjoyed it as a 1000 piece puzzle, but I’ve learned that you never can tell about those things; at least I can’t.
This was my favorite part, I love the dog sitting in the basket waiting for a ride. Hey guys, doesn’t anybody want to take me anywhere? I promise I’ll be good!
I started sorting my next puzzle, a 2000 piece Big Ben right after I completed this, and the pieces were tiny in comparison – both in size and thickness. Perhaps it wouldn’t seem so bad if I hadn’t just finished this one. 😉
The Periodic Table of the Elements – Eurographics – 1000 pieces
I wish I had the right words to express how much I absolutely adored assembling this puzzle – it was so entertaining! It’s an older Eurographics puzzle, so it’s a random cut and it was absolutely the best puzzle I’ve assembled in a while!
Most of the newer Eurographics puzzles I’ve come across are not only grid cut, they only have the one piece shape. Ugh. Boring, boring, boring! This randomly cut puzzle was tricky in some places, but for the most part it was pretty easy – but not boring in the least. Can you tell I loved it?
I never took chemistry, so honestly this is the very first time I had a good look at the Periodic Table, and some of the element’s names were a surprise to me; Americum, Californium, Einsteinium, Europium, Neptunium…
I was very interested in reading the names of all the elements, and it made me curious as to how or why things were named what they were. There was also a table at the bottom showing all the elements, the year they were discovered, and who discovered them. I found it so interesting!
This puzzle was full of things I didn’t know. I’d never heard of Dimitri Mendeleev and had no idea he was the “inventor” of the periodic table. There’s an element named after him too – Mendelevium. I’m sure this isn’t new to many people, but it is to me; I found this entire puzzle not only entertaining, but fascinating as well.
This was one of the puzzles I found in the trunk of mom’s car, and it makes me think of her – she would have loved putting this one together. She knew the kind of puzzles I enjoy, and I’m certain she got this from the thrift store with me in mind. I wish she were here so that I could show her the finished image, tell her thank you, and tell her how much I miss puzzling with her. 💖
This is the first puzzle from this box with a missing piece. I was pretty surprised; everything seemed to be well taken care of, and each puzzle is in it’s own small bag. It’s a little disappointing, but there are still a good amount of interesting puzzles in the box that are complete, and I’ve been enjoying putting them together.
Each puzzle has an educational side, where things are named or explained – those are my favorites. The cute pictures are fine too, but I’ve had a great time learning things I didn’t know before, or re-learning things I’ve forgotten.
The explanations of the parts of a pirate ship reminded me of threats I’ve heard on tv shows or movies. “Hang him from the yardarm”, and being “keelhauled”. You can see where the keel is at the bottom of the ship; I think being dragged under the ship attached to the keel is a particularly horrible form of punishment that I would absolutely want to avoid! And being hung by the yardarm was a method of execution that was quite unpleasant as well – not for me, thanks!
This cute image of cartoony pirates doesn’t really go with my previous paragraph, does it? These are kids puzzles after all. Unfortunately this one won’t be sent with the others to the school where my daughter works, in true pirate fashion it’s lost a leg – and I have no wooden ones to replace it! 😉
